English Dub Season Review: I Left My A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths! Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Not every party treats you like a hero, especially when you’re a lowly red mage like Yuke (Drew Breedlove).  So, after years of constant ridicule by his A-rank party members, he ditches them.  Searching for a new party, he reunites with his former students, Marina (Lindsay Seidel), Silk (Marisa Duran), and Rain (Bryn Apprill), and joins their group.  But on a quest to conquer the world’s greatest dungeon, they become entangled in chaos that threatens the world.

Our Take:

I Left My A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths! is an anime adaptation of a light novel series written by Kōsuke Unagi and illustrated by Super Zombie.  It is directed by Katsumi Ono, and Kazuyuki Fudeyasu handles the screenplays.  It is produced by Bandai Namco Pictures, known for producing other anime series like Aikatsu!, Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun, and Wistoria: Wand and Sword.  Masakazu Yamazaki handled the character designs, while Go Sakabe composed the music.

When you’re part of the strongest team alive, it’s crucial to always treat each other equally, regardless of their strengths and weaknesses.  From my experiences watching anime involving adventurer teams, I learned that a party resembles a family that supports one another through acceptance, trust, and teamwork.  Unfortunately, this latest dungeon-crawling anime highlights that this isn’t always the case, as one specific A-Rank party doesn’t take the hint on how a party should behave towards others.  In fact, it turned out to be the absolute worst out of all of the A-rank parties in this universe, resulting in one of their own to make a decision that leads to a much grander adventure.

Following the tradition of anime with extra-long titles, the plot in I Left My A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths! offered exactly what its title suggests.  An underappreciated mage named Yuke abandoned his ungrateful A-rank party, Thunder Pike, to join a C-Rank team consisting of his former students.  The students consist of Sword Mage Marina, Dark Elf Ranger Silk, and Priestess Rain.  Their team, known as Clover, embarks on dangerous dungeon assignments that lead them to superstardom while the group continues to grow in numbers.  However, they also confront numerous obstacles that threaten their world and the team dynamic, including Yuke’s childhood friend and Thunder Pike leader Simon (Stephen E. Moellering), an egotistical jerk whose lack of responsibility leads to his downfall.  

Consisting of twenty-four episodes, the season’s first arc has Clover gaining popularity through their teamwork and effort, while Thunder Pike realizes how powerless they are without Yuke.  After numerous failed attempts to bring Yuke back, Simon and Thunder Pike resort to extreme measures to break Clover apart.  The second arc then has Clover confronting the mystery behind Dura’s new dungeon that could symbolize the end of their world, leading Yuke to tackle the task of being the chosen hero.  For the third and final arc, Clover is assigned to explore a long-sealed dungeon in the foreign land known as Salmaturia, one that could spark a civil war within the Royal Family and even a national tragedy.  Throughout their adventures, the team gradually grows stronger through its additional allies, including cat-girl scout Nene (Kelly Greenshield), former Thunder Pike mage Jamie (Celeste Perez), and a young girl from the Duna dungeon named Niberune (Megan Shipman).  

Despite the surprising episode count, the arcs could have been reworked as separate seasons to delve deeper into their character development, particularly the first arc.  One notable example is the end of Yuke’s friendship with Simon, both of whom were childhood friends before the events of the series.  Simon’s arrogance and disrespect towards Yuke, combined with Yuke’s popularity with Clover, led them to embark on separate paths.  Of course, Simon’s path was marked by jealousy, pride, and selfishness, which ultimately led to his and the Thunder Pike crew’s tragic fates.  On paper, it’s a poetic reflection of Yuke’s generosity, which brings good fortune, including a harem team, versus Simon’s envy and dishonor, resulting in his downfall.  However, with the arc being nine episodes long, it left specific character elements feeling rushed and underwhelming, particularly Yuke and Simon’s friendship and Clover’s growth in popularity.  Of course, it also made me not give a crap about Simon’s downward spiral, as his unforgivable actions made me want to punch him in the face, whether intentional or not.  Thankfully, the guild master, Benwood (Demetrious Murray), did the job for me, leaving me satisfied with Simon getting a dose of karma before his rewarding death.  But at the very least, Stephen E. Moellering had a lot of fun conveying Simon’s unlikable and gradually deranged personality through his vocal performance, which is enough to tolerate the team leader’s frustrating presence.

Besides that, this is another adventure-fantasy anime that takes the pages out of other familiar shows, mainly the dungeon raid and harem party aspects.  Fortunately, it did have the one specific element that distinguished itself a bit from other adventuring party anime shows: live-streaming.  I Left My A-Rank Party provided a modern twist to the show’s fantastical world-building with the introduction of “camerats,” the small bat-like creatures that function as video cameras.  Each adventuring party utilizes the camerat to livestream themselves embarking on dungeon quests, an element that played a significant role in Clover’s rising popularity, mainly in the season’s first arc.  In a way, it’s a fantasy equivalent to Twitch, in which adventurers can record their talents and raids to multiple fans, no VTubers required.  It not only briefly revitalized the show’s formulaic concept but also highlighted the examination of fame and popularity, as well as the positive and negative influences that come from those topics.  However, after the first arc concluded, those themes were put to the side in favor of providing straightforward dungeon raids, although the live-streaming element remains present in some capacity.

Additionally, the series’s three arcs were often elevated by the chemistry between the members of Clover.  The personalities of each member were basically what you’d expect from an adventuring party, with Yuke being the kindhearted yet struggling leader.  Marina is the joyous and often clueless sword mage, Silk is described as a mother figure amid her co-leader and dark elf personas, and Rain is a priest with a shy and sensitive side.  However, these characteristics were also the reason I tolerated the team more than I had anticipated.  Clover is another adventuring group that treats each other like family through their support and respect, emphasizing the importance of teamwork over popularity.  This marks a significant difference between Clover and Thunder Pike, especially from Yuke’s perspective, in which he strives to become a better and more supportive leader of Clover, compared to Simon’s leadership or lack thereof.  Their issues, mainly Yuke’s concerns about the team’s safety, were a bit tiring, but the endearment and charm from the team’s chemistry injected plenty of spark to make their live-streaming adventures worthwhile.  This was due to the English dub’s main voice cast and their efforts to inject Clover’s likability, including Drew Breedlove as Yuke and Bryn Apprill as Rain.

Besides the formulaic concept, another issue that had been bothering me since the beginning was the sound mixing, or lack thereof.  This issue occurred during the tail end of the second episode, “The Forest Where a Magic Beast Dwells,” where the Clover party battles a Zarnag during their quest to gather stones in the Ordan Lakeside Forest.  While the violence is crucial to making an action anime entertaining, fantasy or otherwise, the sound mixing also played a part in ensuring the impact of each spell or punch is satisfying enough to invoke tension in its action.  Unfortunately, it looked like the sound crew may have forgotten to include the latter before the episode was released.  While the action scenes were mildly entertaining, save for a few freeze-frames, some of the sound effects seemed to be nonexistent, lacking the satisfaction of their impact, mainly for Clover’s battle against the Zarnag.  The sound mixing improved slightly at the start of the show’s second arc, but it left me questioning the post-production process behind the series.

I Left My A-Rank Party marked my latest experience with Bandai Namco Pictures’ presentation after the first season of Wistoria: Wand and Sword.  That series was part of a collaboration between Bandai Namco and Actas, but it helped elevate the animation quality through its designs and thrilling fantasy action, fueling my anticipation for the second season.  On the other hand, I Left My A-Rank Party was produced only by Bandai Namco Pictures, allowing me to judge the style by the company’s own standards, and the result was passable at best.  Regarding the fantasy and world-building aspects, the show’s animation fell short of the similar heights of Wistoria, favoring straightforward action and a few freeze-frame shots over bold and fluid stylization.  It was able to benefit well from the vibrancy and subtle creativity of its settings, especially Achromatic Darkness. However, I wouldn’t recommend promoting this presentation to an A-Rank.

I Left My A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths! isn’t unique enough to reach the top rank, but it offered enough tolerable moments to warrant a C-rank.  It’s one of many instances of anime that provide the same genre blueprint as others, especially those involving dungeon raids and harem parties.  However, even with its familiarity, the execution of its ideas, presentation, and character dynamics was acceptable enough to satisfy those who aren’t expecting anything different from its renowned formula.  Of course, one of those ideas that grabbed my attention the most was the fantasy equivalent to online popularity, thanks to the introduction of “camerats,” even if it gets pushed to the side for the final two arcs.  With its second season already on the way, we can expect the grand return of the dungeon-raiding underdog party sooner rather than later.